By Compiled from Times wires
Published October 11, 2004
It's one of the biggest technical changes in television since color TV: the digital transition. And because many Americans remain in the dark about it, federal regulators began an education campaign last week to enlighten them.
Digital signals don't have "snow" or interference associated with traditional analog transmissions. Digital also allows broadcasters to offer sharper, movie theater-quality pictures available as high-definition television. To see those eye-popping pictures, however, viewers will need a high-definition television set, or HDTV.
"For the vast majority of American households, digital television may be uncharted territory," Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell said. "We will not let them go it alone."
Powell announced a new Web site (www.dtv.gov) to answer questions about digital TV. It will explain what viewers will need once broadcasters switch from transmitting analog signals to digital and list high-definition programming offered in local communities.
The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that about 10 percent of U.S. households - 11-million in all - have digital sets. Last year, about 4-million digital sets were sold, and the association expects Americans to purchase about 7-million sets this year.
Yahoo adds personalization tools
Following a recent industry trend, Internet giant Yahoo Inc. is adding new search engine tools that will enable users to create personal folders and share their favorite links with others.
Yahoo began testing the new features last week. With the new tools (next.yahoo.com), Yahoo's search engine users will be able to sort and save their search results into distinct categories. Visitors also will be able to record personal notes about the saved sites.
Yahoo's upgrade is similar to features recently introduced by two other Internet search engines, Ask Jeeves Inc. and A9.com, which is owned by online retailing giant Amazon.com Inc.
By offering more ways to customize results, the major search engines hope visitors will return to their sites more frequently and stay longer once they're there. The search engines rely on a steady stream of traffic to increase their advertising revenue, the industry's financial lifeblood.
Users of Yahoo's new personalization tools will be able to share their shared results through e-mail or an increasingly popular method for distributing Web links called RSS, shorthand for Really Simple Syndication.
Yahoo's other new features include a spam-fighting feature that can block irrelevant or unwanted Web sites from appearing in search results.
Political satire sensation has sequel
From the creators of the political satire sensation "This Land" comes a sequel set to the tune of Dixie.
The online animation "Good To Be in DC!" features the presidential and vice presidential candidates along with Attorney General John Ashcroft, CBS News anchor Dan Rather, filmmaker Michael Moore, talk show host Rush Limbaugh and Jane Fonda.
"In "This Land,' you had basically (President) Bush and (John) Kerry," said Evan Spiridellis, who co-produced the cartoons with his brother, Gregg. "This piece is more about the whole town, the whole system."
"This Land," in which Bush and Kerry took shots at each other to the tune of This Land is Your Land, quickly became an Internet hit, viewed more than 65-million times since its July release as people e-mailed links to friends around the world.
Running at 80 seconds, or about 30 seconds shorter than "This Land," the sequel was to be available at JibJab.com and AtomFilms.com.
Gearing up with custom PCs
Michael Denney was buying parts for a computer he was building for a friend when his mind kept drifting back to his favorite football team, the Oakland Raiders.
That's when inspiration hit Denney. "I turned around to (the friend) and said, "If I made a computer case that looked like a Raiders helmet, would you buy it?' and he said, "Heck yeah,"' Denney recalled.
Today, Denney is the chief executive of a small Fremont, Calif., startup, Touchdown Industries Inc., that in August began selling the Helmet PC, desktop computers that fit inside football helmets that sport the logo of any professional or college team.
These compact, custom PCs have the usual trappings of Windows PC desktops. They range in price from $700 to $1,500, depending on the type of processor, memory and hardware such as DVD drives.
The DVD and CD drives eject where a football player's eyes and nose would be, and USB ports can be accessed through the face mask.
The replica helmets cost an extra $100. Touchdown Industries is a licensed distributor for Riddell helmets, but customers can buy a helmet with the computer or use a helmet they already own, said Michael Gomez, the company's operations director.
To get the components to fit, Denney used smaller CD and DVD drives designed for laptops. The breakthrough, however, came when Taiwan's Via Technologies Inc. introduced a compact main board that happened to fit inside a helmet, Denney said.
The 10-employee company sells the computers only through its Web site (www.helmetpc.com)
